As an education student in Residency One at West Virginia State University, I have defined my understanding of how to continuously obtain usable data to solve problems for students, make connections to learning, and provide additional accommodations to those who seek or need support. Knowing my students is crucial to this process, provided I wish to give examples of demonstrating knowledge with students. To begin, two students in my classroom have IEPs, an IEP requiring reading aloud and extra time, and another student in the class has reduced work and accommodations for instructions to be read aloud. Evidence to support my claims about my student knowledge is attached to this page; this includes an "All About Me..." student survey issued at the beginning of the school year, with activities that week including a popsicle pull share game in which students communicated exciting things about themselves from however many popsicle sticks they pulled out; these included facts about family members cultural backgrounds; one student told us he was color blind, pets and traditions, as well as hobbies like hunting, sports and video games. This knowledge was used to push students' interest in developing my "Variations of Traits" Unit Plan, in which I took their interest survey and dropped critical information into the activity in the "Slap it" game! Also, I have shared examples of our classroom and UDL (Universal Design for Learning) options available for students (Cast, 2024). I have also included two videos of students working in Tier III and one of a Tier II intervention at RTI. In these videos, I assessed their progression for the classroom teacher. I collected data for small group student grouping (language comprehension for reading) and (checking students comprehend the correct steps and concepts of the Distributive Property). Finally, I have additional photos of this student's work from my assessment taken from the student's "Show-Me" workbook, a supplementary tool we use for working out problems and problem-solving that is required for students to show steps from which they solve their problems! Along with my photo from my scaffolded instruction, modeling the distributive property for him in an alternative example.

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I realize many will need extra support, and this also shows how I can work in RTI Tier II and III interventions to increase intensity to help show progress for particular students before a learning slope occurs and they fall behind. Getting to know my students is another way to demonstrate the vital components of Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of cognitive development, "which is a theory that learning is a social process and that interactions with others influence cognitive development" (McLeod, 2024). Social interactions would include, and Vygotsky believed that students would obtain learning from parents, peers, mentors, and teachers because you are learning from more knowledgeable people.

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I show supporting evidence of two cases of students in videos in which students needed additional support. In one video, I show RTI Tier III interventions with me reading questions aloud for a student's Language Comprehension assessment of the text. In this video, you hear assessment questions for language comprehension after a Cold Reading. The student's scores relate to the learner's ability to understand text, not the ability to read or decode. The second video shows me working with a student who needed more direct instruction, and this was RTI Teir III; this learning objective was for multiplication using the distributive property, precisely to split the largest number to a multiple of "5" and one other smaller number. For example, in equation 9x7, I would split (9) into (5+4) and then share the love with the 7, so that would be (7x5) + (7x4), then (35) + (28) = 63, which is more suitable than 7x9=63 for some third graders. This boy sometimes has moments where he worries too much and needs time to relax, so he loves taking time with me to work one-on-one instead of doing the GoNoodle to work on his math. This video is one example, and his progress has shown improvements. Again, he gets easily anxious and rushes himself, but when he takes a breath, calms himself, gives himself confidence, and believes in his work, he usually does well! This sounds like the Growth Mindset!

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On other occasions, to get to know my students, I take my free time to work on math with them, play Math Prodigy, and help give math problems for our game 'Hooray Array!' This is like Bingo, but you must complete a 3x3 array! These are all options for helping students develop the necessary strategies we have taught in our class. More importantly, these offer a wide variety of learning environments for students, using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model to help with the choice board option with student engagement. "UDL is used to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn" (CAST, 2024). I have not seen more excitement and engagement over math before, like the students in the classroom, when given the learning options for the environment and style in which you learn, from games and peer partners to small groups.

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Another video attached shows several students seeking help for additional Math practice during their GoNoodle time, much like what I do with other students. They also wanted to have that opportunity to work with me to improve their knowledge, and none of this was for a grade. They are all original practice problems or alternative problems on the sheets that we do not have time to do in class or small groups, the "even problems."